The BBC has seen off competition from Channel 4 for the right to broadcast the first British Champions' Day, which will be held at Ascot in October. A two-year deal has been signed but no detail has been offered as to the payment, if any, that the broadcaster will make to the sport.

The new day's racing, which will feature the Champion Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, will offer £3m in prize money, making it the most valuable card ever in Britain. But its creation has prompted much controversy and led to the resignation from the British Horseracing Authority's board at the end of October of Jim McGrath, the Channel 4 analyst, who expressed outrage at the cavalier manner in which historic races were moved from their established positions in the calendar.

"After a competitive process, I'm very pleased that we have reached an agreement with the BBC to broadcast British Champions' Day," said Karl Oliver, chief executive of British Champions' Series. "I'm confident it will soon become a must-watch event for sports fans and racing aficionados alike, as the climax of a thrilling series."

It seems unlikely that the BBC can have made a large offer, having dramatically scaled back its coverage of the sport in recent years, partly in response to racing's decision to pay Channel 4 for continued coverage while the Corporation was still expected to pay for TV rights. But a spokesman for the Jockey Club, which owns many of the racecourses involved in the Series, insisted that "BBC and C4 submitted good commercial bids", that there had been a "true contest" and the fee agreed was "in line with what British Champions' Series set out to achieve".

Those connected with the Series are keen to stress that this fee amounts to a new investment in the sport and one that would not have been made but for the creation of the new day's racing. The deal with the BBC is being portrayed as the moment when Champions' Day passed the first test of its commercial viability.

"We're excited to be offering our audiences the opportunity to watch the British Champions' Day and share the excitement of the culmination to this fantastic event," said Barbara Slater, the BBC's director of sport. "The British Champions' Series is a truly innovative concept and we hope to play our part in attracting new audiences to the sport.

"We value the strong relationships we have with the horse racing industry and look forward to continuing to bring the very best of the sport to the viewing public."